Nearly a decade ago, I stood under an umbrella in the wet streets of Rangoon, blocks away from Aung San Suu Kyi’s home. I held flowers in my hand and had plans to quietly leave them at her gate. But a military barricade blocked the street, and, as I approached, an armed soldier walked towards me shouting and gesturing with his rifle.
I had traveled to Burma as an undercover journalist, searching for clues to understanding one of the world’s most enduring and heartbreaking tragedies—a tragedy that continues to worsen in the hands of a tyrannical military regime.
In 1990, after the democracy party led by Aung San Suu Kyi won a landslide victory in Burma’s popular elections, the shocked dictatorship nullified the results. Too afraid to kill the daughter of an independence hero, they placed her under house arrest, where she has remained for twelve of the last eighteen years. Frequently compared to Gandhi, it is her indomitable spirit that has given Burma’s women leaders the strength to continue their efforts to free their brutalized nation.
To date, the junta has obliterated over 3,200 villages, displaced more than two million civilians, and obstructed aid to millions more. In a land where an army of 400,000 is accountable to no one and has been labeled “a school for rape,” the effects on women are particularly devastating. In many areas it is impossible for a woman to escape fear. At any time, troops may descend upon her village in an ethnic cleansing pogrom: houses will be burned; those who run will be shot; food will be confiscated; adults will be kidnapped and become forced laborers, human minesweepers—and there will certainly be rape.
I have long wondered, how can this country rid itself of a military junta that is steadfastly annihilating its people while much of the rest of the world throws up its hands and refuses to intervene? Answering this question has been an epic quest, but after years of listening to the women leaders of Burma, I believe that we must pay special attention to the gathering force of Burmese women’s groups. These women are following in the footsteps of Aung San Suu Kyi, one of the greatest women leaders in the world.
They are calling for her release; for a UN Security Council “responsibility to protect” resolution; for the International Criminal Court to try the Burmese top brass for crimes against humanity; and for equal voice in the current drafting of the parallel constitution. Women leaders are uniquely positioned to disperse health care, education, and leadership trainings and to accelerate the healing of the women and communities inside of Burma. If their enormous potential is realized, Burma will be poised to become a model for the world in terms of women’s rights.
